by Smith, Glenn
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought you knew?” she taunted, ignoring her partner’s protest. “We had to go to your quarters and bring your wife in for questioning, but she wouldn’t come quietly. I just hope I didn’t rip her arms out of their sockets when I threw her into the doorjamb and yanked them up behind her back to slap the cuffs on her.”
“Ronnie!” the blond shouted.
Royer glanced down. The straps were undone. “You fucking bitch!” she screamed as she shot to her feet and launched herself into her antagonist.
The stocky MP hit the floor with a loud and very solid thud as her partner grabbed Royer by the back of her blouse and yanked her back toward the chair. But Royer twisted and plunged a vicious side kick into the blond’s right armpit, breaking her grasp and knocking her into the wall, and hopefully numbing her arm in the process. Then she kicked the ugly cow across her face as she tried to get back to her feet, flooring her again.
The blond charged her again—she was a determined little wench—but Royer kicked her square in the chest for her troubles. She slammed into the wall again and collapsed to the floor grimacing and cradling her breasts, apparently unable to catch her breathe. She could only watch as Royer squatted and rolled onto her back, maneuvered the handcuffs past her boots and raised her arms up in front of her all in one smooth motion, and then jumped back to her feet, ready to keep on fighting.
The ugly cow rose to her feet at the same time and charged, but Royer stepped aside at the last second and tripped her. Then she made a run for the door, but the surprisingly resilient blond was on her back again in an instant, choking her from behind and trying to force her to the floor. Royer jabbed her elbow sharply into her ribs once, twice, three times...aain and again until she finally heard a telltale crack and the young woman fell away. She spun around and punched the ugly cow across her bloodied face with both fists, sending her sprawling across the table. Then she bent down and grabbed the blond’s sidearm out of its holster. She ran for the door, slapped the release, and charged into the corridor.
“Freeze, Royer!” the ugly cow shouted at her back.
Royer turned without thinking, the MP’s sidearm still in her hands.
A sharp CRACK pierced the air and reverberated through the hallway.
Chapter 71
Dylan shook his head in quiet disbelief as he read on. How could man ever have been so cold-blooded and murderous? He’d known what was coming, of course, as the chapter carried him out of the twentieth century and plunged him into the tumultuous war-filled years of the early twenty-first. He’d learned all about those dark days in his Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection training classes. But as the events of Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001 unfolded in black and white before his eyes he couldn’t help but feel stunned and amazed all over again, and he wondered, what if someone were to go that far back in time and prevent those terrible attacks? Or perhaps even farther back than that? What if someone were to kill Bin-Laden and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein as children—or even Germany’s Adolph Hitler for that matter—before they ever had a chance to come to power and begin their murderous reigns of terror? How incredibly different the world might be.
He heard a knock at his door.
“Come in.”
The door swung open and Benny stepped inside. “It’s later,” he said.
“What?” Dylan asked, looking up.
“Commander Akagi just received his confirmation of your orders.”
“So I’m going through?”
“You’re going through.”
Dylan set the reader aside, sat up on the bed, and dropped his bare feet to the floor. He’d had plenty of time to familiarize himself with the details of what Hansen and Royer expected him to do once he arrived in the past, and to get used to the idea of actually doing it. And taking the ‘a mission is a mission’ approach, he believed he had done so. But as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, he realized that was all he’d done—gotten used to the idea—because he’d known in the back of his mind that there was always a possibility, albeit a slim one at best, that the whole thing might be called off. But now that the final word had come, now that his orders had been confirmed and nothing remained to stop him from going through the Portal, he realized that the prospect of actually going through with it, of actually traveling backward in time, made him nervous. No, more than that. It scared him. He felt honest to God afraid.
“Are you all right, Dylan?” Benny asked as he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of him. “You don’t look so good.”
“I don’t know, Benny,” he answered honestly. “I thought I was ready to do this, but... I can’t believe we’re really going through with it.”
“I’m a little surprised myself, to be honest with you. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever been tried before. But Admiral Hansen is nothing if not decisive.”
“I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Sure you can,” Benny reassured him. “All you have to do is walk out onto it. Think of it as wading into a swimming pool.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Dylan told him as he stood up and started pacing back and forth from one end of the small room to the other. “Going through the Portal will be the easy part. It’s knowing what’s at stake that scares me. Everything depends on me—depends on what I do back there. Or what I don’t do. What if I make a mistake, Benny? What if I fail?”
“That doesn’t sound like the Dylan Graves I’ve come to know.”
Dylan stopped his pacing and looked at the old captain. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“I haven’t known you very long, but I think I’ve gotten to know you pretty well. You’re confident, determined, and very sure of yourself. You’d never have made it as a Ranger squad leader if you weren’t.”
“Yeah, but this is totally different.”
“I’ve known Admiral Hansen for a long time, Dylan. He wouldn’t have chosen you for this mission if he didn’t believe you could pull it off.”
“Admiral Hansen chose me for this mission because I’m the son of the Excalibur‘s captain, Benny. He said so himself.”
“And because he shares Royer’s faith in your ability to succeed. Don’t forget that.”
Dylan snickered. “I wouldn’t put too much faith in anything Commander Royer says, if I were you.”
“Regardless, you were their choice, and for good reason. And,” he added as he stood up and started toward the door, “you accepted this mission with your eyes wide open, knowing exactly what was expected of you. So at this point it’s your duty to see it through.”
Dylan grinned, finding Benny’s frankness humorous, even if Benny hadn’t meant it to be so. How many times had he resorted to that tactic himself? How many times had he reminded one of his own subordinates of his or her duty to get them to do what they were supposed to do? Now Benny had done the same for him. And the old captain was right, whether he liked it or not. It was his duty to see the mission through. “I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“I’ll be in the recreation room,” Benny told him as he left.
Dylan had showered and shaved earlier—priority one upon arrival in the past, buy some more beard retardant—so all he had left to do was get dressed. He went to the closet and pulled out a uniform. This time, one that he’d never worn before. The one that he’d brought with him specifically for the mission. The blue utilities that enlisted Solfleet Military Police troops had worn two decades ago. Security Police, he reminded himself. The branch hadn’t changed over to the current Military Police/Security Forces doctrine until 2172 when someone high enough up in the chain of command to do something about it finally realized that assigning military law enforcement officers to landing party and away team missions without providing them with a lot of additional specialized training was just a plain bad idea.
He dressed quickly—anxious energy, no doubt—and grabbed up his quarter century old equipment, then went by the recreation room to retrieve Benny. They headed out
together.
Commander Akagi met them outside the tunnel entrance, and as they descended the stairs to once more walk beneath the ancient ruins, Benny just kept on talking, hoping to ease Dylan’s nerves. Akagi flashed him several irritated looks along the way, but not until they reached the stairs that led up to the Portal site did the old captain finally clam up. But even then his silence didn’t last for very long.
“How do you feel now, Dylan?” he asked as they approached the ancient relic.
“To be honest, Benny, I’m still a little nervous.”
“Only a little?”
Dylan shook his head. “No.”
“Deactivate the security field,” Akagi said to the guard manning the post. “Mister Graves here will be going through the Portal.”
“Sir?” the bewildered guard responded.
“You heard me, Corporal!” Akagi snapped. “Drop the goddamn field!”
“Yes, sir!” the corporal shouted disrespectfully.
Akagi glared at the junior NCO for a second or two but didn’t say anything else. Over the last twenty hours or so since Sedelnikov and Graves had arrived, he’d made no secret of the fact that he didn’t like the idea of letting someone step through the Portal, whether he was on a sanctioned mission or not. What he had kept secret, and what he truly resented, was the fact that someone other than him had been chosen to do it. He was envious. He’d been denied permission to go through time and time again. Denied permission to travel into the Earth’s past to conduct first-hand historical studies. Denied permission to actually live and experience every historian’s fantasy. And now this...this kid was going through. This kid who couldn’t care less about Earth history. This kid who hadn’t the faintest idea of what an incredible opportunity had been handed to him on a silver platter. Why him? What right did he have? It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair at all.
The security field was still active. “I said drop the damn field!” Akagi shouted.
“I am dropping the damn field!” the guard shouted as he jumped to his feet. He stared curiously at Dylan’s outdated uniform as he finished entering a sequence of commands and a sort of hostility seemed to burn in his eyes, as though he blamed Dylan for his being yelled at. Then, as soon as he was ready to shut down the field, he said, “Captain Sedelnikov, I’ll have to ask you to keep your distance. Please stay there with the commander, sir.”
Dylan could see in the guard’s face just how much he enjoyed that little taste of authority. It reminded him of the former high school friend he’d originally enlisted with. No wonder they’d stuck this guy way out here in the middle of nowhere. Chances were no one could stand to be around him for very long.
“You don’t have to worry about me, mister,” Benny responded. “I’m much too old to do any of that kind of traveling.”
“You’ll still have to keep your distance, sir.”
“Not a problem, son. I’ll stay right where I am.”
“Thank you, sir.”
With the press of one last button the invisible field suddenly flashed a bright yellow-blue with an electrical-like snap, then instantly disappeared again. “The barrier is down,” the guard announced.
“Will you be able to hear me in there?” Dylan asked Akagi.
“Within the security field, yes,” the commander answered, “as long as you speak up a bit. You should be able to hear me with no problem, too. Once you go through the Portal, of course, we won’t be able to communicate with each other at all. At that point you’re history, at least from our perspective.”
Dylan glared at the commander with a disapproving grimace on his face. “Could you possibly have chosen your words any more poorly?” he asked sarcastically.
“That was a stupid thing to say, Commander,” Benny scolded.
“Sorry, Lieutenant,” Akagi said with a complete lack of sincerity. “Now, to activate...”
“No,” Dylan said as he turned and faced the Portal again. “I’ve been studying the ancient Tor’Rosha a lot over the last couple of weeks. I’d like to try this myself.”
“Fine,” Akagi said as though Dylan had insulted him with his request. “Since you’ve got weeks of research under your belt, by all means. Be my guest.”
Benny grinned and nodded, ever so slightly. Yes. He’d seen it when he and Dylan met. The lieutenant was a born explorer. He didn’t belong in the Marine Corps or with the S.I.A. He belonged on an Explorer-class starcruiser.
“What’s he going through for, sir?” the guard asked of Akagi.
“I’ve been wondering about that myself,” Akagi said. He turned to Benny.
“I told you before,” Benny said, heading off the question. “It’s classified.”
Akagi shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
Benny grunted. Then he said, “I have a question for you, Commander.”
“What’s that?”
He glanced at the guard. “Do you always let your subordinates shout at you like that?”
“What, you mean like the corporal there?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.”
“Well, I don’t like it, of course. But it’s not like I’m an officer of the line or anything. I’m a scientist.”
“You’re still a commissioned officer, Commander, and you’re this outpost’s commanding officer. You should demand your subordinates treat you as such. Otherwise discipline will break down, as you can plainly see.”
“Can’t say you’re wrong about that. Maybe I should be a little more by the book.”
“You might want to start by throwing it at the corporal there.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Dylan stepped inside the security field’s perimeter. It hummed briefly behind him when the guard reactivated it, then gave no further hint that it existed at all. He moved forward, raising a hand toward the Portal, and even though he expected it to feel cool and hard, just like any other metal object, he’d barely touched his fingertips to the edge of its rim before he quickly withdrew, just in case.
He’d felt no sensation of electrical current. No sense of extreme heat or cold. He repeated the exercise, maintaining contact for a fraction of a second longer, then pulled his hand away again...still unharmed.
Benny laughed, and Dylan turned to look at him. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Have you ever seen the film based on your Admiral Hansen’s favorite old book, ‘Two-thousand One: A Space Odyssey?’”
Dylan shook his head. “I’ve never even heard of it. Why?”
“The way you approached the Portal. You remind me of one of the characters in the film’s opening sequence.”
“Oh,” Dylan replied, having no idea what Benny was referring to. He turned back to the Portal and touched its rim once more. He pressed his entire palm against it and dragged his hand slowly across its surface. He heard Benny laughing under his breath again, but chose to ignore it. Benny had been a good traveling companion. If he found something about all this amusing, then let him laugh.
The Portal’s rim felt warm to the touch, but not too hot, and perfectly smooth. Much smoother than he’d expected it to feel once he noticed the millions, perhaps even billions of minute pockmarks that he hadn’t seen until he got close. It felt a little like the surface of a polished white metal deck table that had been sitting in the sun for several hours.
He withdrew his hand and passed it through the open space beneath the rim. Nothing. No different than the air around him. There simply wasn’t anything there.
He sidled over to the ramp and ascended to the pedestal to study the hieroglyphs on the control panel.
“Can you read them?” Benny shouted.
“I haven’t had much practice, but I think so. Some of them anyway.” He found the basic symbol that could mean either ‘begin’ or ‘start’ or ‘engage’, depending on its context, and touched his wrist to its center. Why he had to use his wrist he didn’t know, but that was what the research notes he’d studied had indicated humans
had to do. At first nothing happened and he thought maybe he was doing something wrong. But then a sudden bright white flash and a loud rumble exploded in the air around him as though an intense thunderstorm had decided to strike directly overhead, practically scaring him right out of his boots. A steady, quiet, gentle hum like that of a high-voltage electrical generator immediately followed.
Dylan cursed a tirade under his breath as his vision slowly returned and the ringing in his ears quieted, then paused a moment to wait for his heart to stop trying to pound its way out of his chest. Then he turned to Benny and asked, “What the hell was that?”
“Hell of a rush, isn’t it, Lieutenant?” the laughing guard joked.
Dylan glared at him. “Very funny,” he resplied sarcastically.
“Nothing like a good rush of adrenaline to make the day worth living, is there?”
“You’ve never been in combat, have you?”
“Oh, big hero,” the guard said. “You’ve been in combat. So what?”
“At ease, soldier!” Benny shouted. He knew ‘so what.’ He’d seen the horrors of combat first hand just as Dylan had, and damned if he was going to let someone mock a fellow combat veteran. Especially another service member who ought to know better.
The guard fell silent.
Paying no further attention to his silenced antagonist, Dylan took out his twenty-five year old handcomp, turned it on, and set it to record. Then, anticipating another burst of the Portal’s fireworks, just in case, he continued examining and manipulating the controls.
Some of the symbols were completely unfamiliar—maybe they were of an older dialect than the one he’d studied—but he still managed to make fairly steady progress...for a while. But then he reached the point where he had to enter his destination time and location, and no matter what he did, no matter what sequence of buttons he pressed, he couldn’t get the Portal to respond.
“Need some help, Lieutenant?” Akagi asked without disguising his attitude of superiority when he’d apparently watched in silence long enough.
“How do you enter the destination?”
